


My Treat?

by imaginationart



Category: Scream (TV)
Genre: F/M, Reimagining, elideservedbetter, howitshouldhavegone, scream, screamseason2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-09 01:00:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11658324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginationart/pseuds/imaginationart
Summary: A reimagining of how the finale of season 2 turned out because Eli Hudson did not deserve what he got.Implications of a future Emma/Eli relationship.One shot but not against the idea of continuing it.





	My Treat?

Eli Hudson knew what it was like to be strange.

And that’s because he was strange, plain and simple, but that did not mean he was a bad person, and he most certainly wasn’t a murderer.

Deep down, he knew Emma must’ve known that, he knew that she had been manipulated by Kieran and that sometimes it’s easier to put your faith into a lie, than to embrace the truth. But that did not take away from the brunt or the bitter sting of betrayal from the bullet she fired into him.

Nor did it take away from the fatality of the round Kieran then shot into him.

But perhaps, maybe it was the karma from the bullying or the accusations he’d faced that really saved him, perhaps he had a lucky break of good karma, because multiple gunshot victims are not meant to survive, so what made him so special?

 

Emma Duval felt weighed down with guilt. Not only was she traumatised from the fact she’d been sleeping with a serial killer, but she shot a completely innocent person, someone who just wanted to protect her, but she let herself get manipulated, let her mind get morphed into thinking that he could be the murderer.

She couldn’t bring herself to wait at the crime scene long enough to see his lifeless body carried out in a body bag.

And so that left her hunched over her kitchen table, staring blankly into the corner where she and Eli came so close to kissing, and wishing with everything she had, that there was some way she could go back in time and save him.

Despite her lack of concentration on time, Emma could’ve sworn that her mum came home too early for someone who had a body to examine, yet even as she heard the lock click, she couldn’t bring herself to stand and ask her if she just left Eli’s body lying on that metal coroner’s slab.

“Emma,” her mum whispered her name gently, “Emma you need sleep, especially after everything that’s happened.”

She felt herself snap, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead mum, Eli certainly is.”

Her head still hasn’t turned from its fixed gaze to the corner, so she hears, not sees, her mum’s backwards steps and her sharp intake of breath in shock, “Emma, Emma, Emma, talk to me please.” Staying numb and resolute, she let her mum’s pleas to fall on death ears, “Please baby, there’s something I need to tell you.”

Too caught up in a happier memory playing out whilst staring into that kitchen corner, she almost missed her mum’s hand resting on her shoulder, almost missed the soothing, “Eli isn’t dead Emma.”  
And just like that, she has the strength to tear her eyes away from the corner and rush to her car.

 

“Emma, come on, you know I love you, but this is getting ridiculous!” Audrey cried out as she tried once again to tug Emma from the hospital chair she seemed to have firmly rooted herself in.

Lying on the hospital bed positioned in front of them, was Eli Hudson, the steady beeping from his heart monitor acted as a constant reassuring reminder that he would live, and that in his serial killing spree, Kieran did not claim his cousin’s life.

“Please, Em, just come with me, you’ve stayed here for two weeks, this cannot be healthy,” Audrey pleaded.

Biting her lip, as she rested her chin against her hands, Emma shook her head in response, “No, I can’t leave him, I shot him Audrey, I couldn’t let myself see that it was Kieran. I did this.”

Jogging her leg in thought, Audrey sighed in defeat and dropped into the hospital chair next to Emma’s, “No, look, we both did this okay?” Her hand rested on her friend’s hunched shoulder, “Em, we both did this.”

“No. It doesn’t matter who did it,” she looked at his sleeping body fondly, but her voice was tinged with regret, “I’m not leaving until he wakes up.”

Brooke’s heels clicked as she strode into the room, “Look, I haven’t seen you, since I was cleared from, surgery, and that’s okay I don’t mind, because if that was Jake in that bed you can bet I wouldn’t be leaving his side either, but, come with us for lunch, please, two hours max I promise.” She paused, her voice softening as she took in the sight of her friend, “and then you can be right back here, okay?”

For a while, the three girls were silent, the steady beeping left as the only sound in the room, “Look Brooke, I don’t want to be rude, but me and Emma have been friends for, forever, so like, if she doesn’t leave when I try to get her to leave, I doubt you trying to get her to leave is going to work,” Audrey stated, gesturing wildly with her hands and eyebrows.

“No, no, you know what Audrey?” Emma said, pushing out her chair, “I’ve been so caught up in the guilt and worry over Eli that I’ve forgotten to be a good friend.”

“Unbelievable,” Audrey muttered, whilst Brooke just smugly smiled and offered both her arms to the two of them.

 

Two hours later, Emma found herself walking back into the hospital, a fresh hot chocolate in her hand to drink for the evening, and for the first time in god knows how long, a relaxed smile on her face. 

Whilst all her friends found themselves once again, inconsolable from their losses, there was the promise that they could heal, together, as a group. But for the whole of their meal out, there felt as if there were gaping holes, places where Jake should’ve been sitting, where Zoe should’ve been sitting, where Riley should’ve been sitting, where Will should’ve sat, where Eli should’ve sat, not stood, lingering a bit away from the group, where he should’ve sat, for the first time, welcomed by all of them.

But at least with Eli, there was hope he could still sit there.

Yet, as Emma went to re-enter his hospital room, where she even had a bed set up, after being granted special visitation thanks to Tina, a nurse stopped her, “Ma’am, I’m afraid you can’t go in there, not whilst the doctor is running his tests.”

Her eyebrows furrowed, “Oh no, that’s okay, I’ve been in there before whilst the doctor has done the routine check-up tests.”

The nurse’s lips tensed together in a pout, “No ma’am, these aren’t the routine check-up tests.”

Now, this probably wasn’t the smartest thing to say to a survivor of not one, but two murder sprees because survivors end up assuming the worst, “No, he’s not…” Emma choked, “I thought, wasn’t, wasn’t his condition improving?”

It was then, that the nurse realised this was the girl who had been the source of gossip throughout all the other nurses, she could remember pieces, ‘poor girl’, ‘survived two serial killers targeting her’, ‘she got tricked into shooting that boy you know, by her boyfriend, who…’, ‘her boyfriend turned out to be THE killer, yeah! The killer!!’. “Oh no, please ma’am. Don’t panic, he’s awake, look, I’m sure you’ll be able to see him soon.”

Her face lit up, “Awake! Awake? Eli, Eli, is awake?” 

For a second, the nurse was struck with the fear of having to keep this girl from entering the room now knowing that the boy she very clearly has feelings for, is now awake, but found herself saved as the door clicked open and then shut behind her, signifying the doctor was in the process of leaving the room, having finished his tests, but found his path blocked by an anxious nurse and a hysterical teenage girl.

“Uh, Miss, Miss Duval? My patient can have visitors now, if you want, I told him, you haven’t left the hospital for two weeks and he seemed rather eager to see you…” The Doctor stuttered out, as Emma flew past him into the room.

But as she saw Eli’s eyes fixated on her with curiousity, she felt herself halting, “Eli… There is no way I can apologise for not believing you, or, or shooting you, and even then, even then you still tried to save me! And I can’t even fathom how betrayed you must’ve felt, or, or, how much, how much you must hate me, but,” Emma winced and took a few more steps forward to his bed, “but I want you to know that there is someone who cares about you, and that someone is so incredibly sorry.”

The expression in his eyes remains guarded, “You didn’t believe I wasn’t the killer, I get it, I wouldn’t have believed me either, but, god Emma couldn’t you tell how much I cared about you? Why couldn’t you have just believed me when I said that I would never, never do anything to hurt you?”

She shook her head, clearly feeling helpless, “It was just easier to believe that the mysterious stranger that I was attracted to when I was meant to be loyal to my boyfriend was the killer, than, my boyfriend was. And I’m sorry, because you deserved, so, so much more.”

He looked down, and a strange expression crossed his face, as he let out a bitter laugh, “And even now, I don’t want anymore, I still want you,” a shadow of a smile crossed Eli’s face, “did you really stay here for two whole weeks?”

“I did, I couldn’t leave without knowing you were okay,” Emma bit her lip nervously, before she raised her eyes to meet his, and then, echoing his past words back to him, she asked, “do you maybe want to grab lunch sometime, you know, to make up for everything, my treat?”

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely love these two together and they had so much potential.
> 
> Eli as a character had so much potential and after watching the finale I felt as if I couldn't leave the story alone until I wrote him the happier ending he deserved.
> 
> I am not at all against continuing this story but only if that's what people want.


End file.
